How To Be Happy, Part 7

Obedience.

I remember that I used  to be grounded a lot when I was growing up. I don't know about you, but  that was not, and continues not to be, my idea of happiness. Well, now  I am older, and beyond the authority of my earthly parents. They have lost  their ability to discipline (and sometimes punish) me, but I am still not  grown up. Nobody ever stops "growing up." So, instead of my parents,  it is God the one who disciplines me now.

"For the Lord disciplines  the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." Hebrews  12:6, ESV (and Proverbs 3:12.)

So far, we have talked about focusing on  Him, and living in thanksgiving towards him. Well, you can do those  all day long, but if you disobey, you will cause God to exert His discipline  upon you. That does not yield a happy life.

If you discipline yourself,  God won't have to!

God gave us His commandments, in part, so we may know  how sinful we are and how much we need Him. Additionally, I fervently believe  that he gave them to us as blueprint of how to live our lives in a fulfilling  way, in the optimal way.

He created us. He created this world. He gave  us life. Don't you think that He might have a better idea of how to live  this life than we do?

Those who go out of their way to fight and disobey  his commandments, only work towards building a life of misery and dissatisfaction  for themselves. And God will let them!!

Have you read the Sermon on the  Mount lately? If we go through life judging other, we are only judging  ourselves and making our own lives miserable. If we go through life relying  on what other's think about us in order to feel good about ourselves, we  will be unstable, people pleasing, miserable, creatures.

All the commandments  given in the bible, whether in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Old Testament,  or elsewhere, were given with one goal in mind, to show you the way towards  leading a happy, healthy, and long life.

"I will instruct you and  teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon  you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be  curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you." Psalm 32:  8-9, ESV